News

Wednesday May 7, 2008

Academic Winners

The NCAA has recognized six University of Dayton athletic teams for academic rankings in the top 10 percent nationally.

INDIANAPOLIS - Six athletics programs at the University of Dayton were honored by the NCAA with public recognition awards for their latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores on April 24. Five men's sports including basketball, cross country, football, golf and tennis were joined by women's golf on the list.

Each of these teams posted multi-year APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports. The public recognition awards are part of the broad Division I academic reform effort. Only 27 of the 192 NCAA Division I schools had more teams cited than the six that Dayton had. Also, of the 33 men's basketball programs that were honored, UD is one of just three from the Atlantic 10 Conference.

In addition, the Flyer football program was one of just 25 nationally to be recognized, joining Davidson as the only other team listed from the Pioneer Football League.

"Congratulations to these teams and their student-athletes for success in the classroom," NCAA President Myles Brand said. "They are setting a great example for their peers and future student-athletes, as well."

The APR provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention, and graduation in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. High-performing teams receiving awards posted APR scores ranging from 965 to a perfect 1,000.

Four different programs at UD earned APR scores of 1,000 as men's cross country, men's golf, men's tennis and women's golf posted a perfect APR for the second consecutive season.

The teams recognized this year for high achievement represent 11.4 percent of the approximately 6,272 Division I team. The list includes 401 women's teams and 311 men's or mixed squads. A total of 192 institutions, out of 329 Division I colleges and universities, placed at least one team on the list.

Last year, a total of 839 teams nationally were recognized. There are fewer awards this year than last year because there are fewer teams with perfect scores. The number of teams in some sports may exceed 10 percent depending on how many achieved perfect 1,000 APR scores.

A complete list of the awards by institution can be found at the NCAA Website.

Multi-year APR scores for all 6,110 Division I sports teams, including the teams receiving public recognition awards, will be announced May 6. The announcement also will include immediate and historical penalties for low-performing teams.